MLS Origins – Part 0 – The Four Drafts

MLS Origins – Building the rosters for the inaugural MLS season

I’ve decided to write this series to take a look at the decisions made by the league and teams ahead of the first MLS season, mainly the events surrounding the original roster creations. This is some of the league’s history that has yet to be covered in a way I found really satisfying, and I intend to take a more personal look at each player that was selected and how they fared both before, during, and after their time in MLS.

MLS used four different sorts of drafts to build the initial rosters, the Allocations where each team received four “marquee players”, the Player Draft which gave teams a chance to draft from the pool of 250 MLS-selected players, the College Draft for drafting college players and the Supplemental Draft for drafting other American professional players. The last two live on in a combined state as the MLS SuperDraft.

Before we dive into the ten teams and who they selected, we first need to explain the four drafts a bit more, as well as get some context for the state of professional American soccer in 1995.

In 1995, the professional soccer scene in the United States was mainly limited to the indoor National Professional Soccer league and Continental Soccer League, and the outdoor American Professional Soccer League , by then renamed to A-League, and the USISL Professional League. The APSL suffered from the fact that, with the demise of Canada’s CSL in 1992 (not to be confused with the current CSL based in Ontario), it had admitted three Canadian teams which ran afoul of FIFA regulations governing division 1 status. Leagues were not permitted to cross national borders at the time. Additionally, the league was struggling to retain teams. USISL was growing, reaching a ludicrous 55 teams in 1995, while that same year the A-League fielded only 6. While the A-League was considered the higher quality league, money and teams were flying out the door, and with FIFA refusing to sanction them, the United States were left without a true D1-quality league.

Until MLS, that is.

By now, I’m sure you all know a good amount about the origin of MLS, but if not, go read Beau Dure’s “Long Range Goals”, which does a better job of documenting the actual birth of the league better than I could. Long story short, people came together, contracts were signed, teams were created, and work was done.

So now, we jump to October of 1995. MLS is a go, we have ten teams around the country, and a number of USMNT and other notable American players have signed with the new league. Great! The next step: turn these teams into a reality by actually building the rosters. We introduce now the men tasked with such, the inaugural class of MLS managers.

First up, the Colorado Rapids. who chose journeyman Englishman Bob Houghton, who by then had managed 8 teams in 3 different countries and became notable for winning the Allsvenskan three times and the Svenska Cupen four times with Swedish side Malmö FK. He previously coached the Toronto Blizzard in the North American Soccer League during their final three seasons, losing the championship game the final two years.

Next, the Columbus Crew. Their initial manager was Finnish-born Timo Liekoski who by then had spent the bulk of his soccer career in the United States initially as a college player, later coaching a number of NASL teams from the mid seventies through the league’s demise. At one point, he was fired twice in less than 12 months for dismal starts to seasons. His most recent experience before MLS had been with the USA Olympic national team, preparing them for the 1996 Olympics. He again was fired from this post after two winless tournaments.

The Dallas Burn decided to look local, and settled on Dave Dir who had by then already been working for MLS in charge of scouting and creating the player pools I’ll be analyzing. He had achieved notable success at Regis University and with the APSL’s Colorado Foxes.

DC United had arguably the strangest choice of manager, a man who had achieved the bulk of his athletic success in lacrosse, even winning the 1974 World Lacrosse Championship with the American national team, before finishing second to Canada four years later. He later dedicated himself to coaching soccer, coaching at the University of Virginia for 18 seasons and winning five national championships, before working with the U-23 American national team. This man’s name? Bruce Arena.

Kansas City, still known as the Wiz, signed NASL-era veteran player-manager Ron Newman, also famous for the 10 championships in 11 years won by his indoor soccer San Diego Sockers. He hired his son Guy Newman to assist. By this point in time, Newman’s coaching legacy was already cemented with his 1992 induction to the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

The Los Angeles Galaxy went with a familiar name in the state of California, German-American Lothar Osiander, best remembered for his brief stint in charge of the USMNT in the mid eighties. He had spent time with the Atlanta Ruckus immediately prior to the formation of MLS, winning A-League Coach of the Year after his only season.

New England went with a frankly inexperienced manager in Irishman Frank Stapleton, whose only managerial experience came as player-manager for Bradford City. He was sacked from both roles following three mediocre seasons in the English third tier league. As a player, though, he was known for successful times at Manchester United and Arsenal, and for captaining the Irish national team.

The New York/New Jersey MetroStars made what seemed to be one of the more astute managerial decisions, hiring South African-born Italian international Eddie Firmani, who had spent years playing in Italy and had coached in England, the NASL, and the middle east. Most notably, he coached some of the peak New York Cosmos teams, and won a total of four NASL titles.

For San Jose, the managerial choice seemed logical to any long-time Bay Area Soccer fans. After bouncing around England for years, Laurie Calloway had played for and later managed the original Earthquakes, and had been at the helm of the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks during their CONCACAF Champions’ Cup run, making it all the way to the finals against Club America. His team was at that point the most successful American team yet in CONCACAF competition.

And finally, we come to the Tampa Bay Mutiny, who signed the colorful Dutchman Thomas Rongen away from the recently defunct second incarnation of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. Rongen played a number of games both outdoor and indoor through the eighties in the United States, and by 1995 had spent over a decade coaching teams at various levels throughout Florida. With the Strikers, from 1989 through 1994, Rongen was manager, coach, player AND captain simultaneously, and led his team to the 1989 ASL title and national championship win.

With our manager class introduced, we move now to the first of our four player drafts, the 1996 MLS Inaugural Allocations.

Starting in January of 1995, MLS began signing notable US internationals and other notable American professionals to league-level contracts, designating these players as “marquee players”, eventually totaling 40 such players. With the intention of parity, the league planned on allocating four marquee players each to the ten inaugural franchises. The first player to sign such a contract was Tab Ramos, veteran of two World Cups for the USMNT and then on loan to Mexican side Tigres UANL. 39 players followed Ramos, representing a total of eleven countries from four continents.

Rather than allowing each team to select their players, the league did the actual decision-making, sending each team their four players although Dave Dir, soon to be manager of the Dallas Burn, had a hand in the decision process. The allocation process occurred shortly before the actual drafts took place, in early 1996. Each team was guaranteed at least one USA international and one foreign international.

The Colorado Rapids received three USMNT players in Marcelo Balboa, Dominic Kinnear, and Roy Wegerle, as well as South African international Shaun Bartlet.

Columbus got two American internationals named Brian, Brians Maisonneuve and Bliss. They also received Uruguayan international Adrian Paz and on loan received South Africa’s Doctor Khumalo from the Kaizer Chiefs.

Following MLS’s early strategy of marketing to Hispanic fans, the Dallas Burn were sent three players of Latino background along with their obligatory USMNT man in Mark Santel. The other three were Mexican legend Hugo Sanchez, Colombian veteran Leonel Alvarez, and Uruguayan youth international Washington Rodriguez.

DC United received two American internationals, Jeff Agoos and John Harkes, and two Bolivian internationals, Berthy Suarez and Marco Etcheverry, widely considered one of Bolivia’s best ever.

Kansas City got three American internationals; Missouri native Mike Sorber, Greek-born Frank Klopas, and Yugoslavian-American Predrag Radosavljević, better known as Preki from his indoor soccer days. Rounding out their allocation was Zimbabwean international Vitalis Takawira.

The Galaxy were given the same “Market to Hispanic Fans” treatment as Dallas, receiving three Latino players along with American Dan Calichman. Joining him were the flamboyantly eccentric Mexican international Jorge Campos, Salvadorean international Mauricio Cienfuegos, and journeyman Ecuadorean international Eduardo Hurtado.

The Metrostars were sent Italian international Roberto Donadoni along with a trio of Americans; Tab Ramos, the first to sign with MLS, Tony Meola, and Damian Silvera.

New England, like NYNJ, received the other allocated Italian international Giuseppe Galderisi, along with three Americans; Mike Burns, Jim St. Andre, and 1994 World Cup standout Alexi Lalas.

San Jose got a pair of Nigerian internationals in Benedict Iroha and Michael Emenalo, along with a pair of American World Cup veterans in John Doyle and Eric Wynalda.

And finally, the Tampa Bay Mutiny, yet another market where MLS employed its Latino marketing ploy, received Mexican international Martin Vasquez, who soon switched to the USMNT, along with Colombian legend Carlos Valderrama. Joining them was another pair of American internationals in Cle Kooiman and Roy Lassiter.

The next step in building the rosters was the Inaugural Player Draft, which took place over two days in early February 1996. This gave every team 16 picks to choose from a pool of 250 players MLS had invited to tryouts, ranging from indoor soccer players to Americans playing abroad to standout professionals from the various leagues across North America. Unlike in the following two drafts, there was no trading of picks nor any passing. Each team used all their picks, for a total of 160 selected players.

Following that was the College Draft, which took place on March 4th, in which teams had three rounds to select any amateur players from the NCAA soccer system. This round saw picks traded along with, and in some cases for, players taken in the previous draft.

The final draft, the Supplemental Draft, took place immediately following the College Draft. Once again, this draft encompassed three rounds with each team receiving a pick in each round, although trading and one pass, Colorado with the penultimate pick, meant that not every team left with three players.

With all the explanation out of the way, what follows will be team-by-team breakdowns of each of the 26 picks, and the careers of every chosen player. I’ll be looking at teach player’s career before MLS, their time spent in Major League Soccer, and their careers afterward, along with a bit of history of how the 1996 season unfolded. Stay tuned!

Growing Pains, or the story of today’s build.

Today, I built my dad a brand new desktop pc, his first new desktop since the summer of 2008.

He wanted to go pre-built, but I told him he’d get a lot more PC for his cash if I did the assembly and picked the parts.

So, after weeks of research and build checking, I went to Micro Center earlier today on a mission. I already had priced everything out and the tech I’ve been working with helped get everything together. Shopping went shockingly smoothly, and that tech/salesdude very much so earned his commission.

Assembly, hardware wise, went smoothly as well. Motherboard was easy to install, CPU went in smoothly, fan and heatsink installation took only a few minutes, and all the wiring was clearly marked and labeled. So far, so good.

Once everything was bolted and screwed and wired into place, it was time to fire the beast up, just for confirmation.

Post and BIOS, first try, no issues, everything working. Never happened before, but I’m not complaining (at least about this).

The drama begins when we get to the software. Back in 2009 or so, my dad bought a 3 pack Windows 7 upgrade license for Home Premium. He’s never built a machine from scratch, always going OEM, so you may notice, we’ve not bought a pure install (non-upgrade) license of Windows since 98SE. Nearly TWENTY years ago.

And, of course, the upgrade disc didn’t work correctly, because I didn’t have anything installed on this machine. Fantastic. I don’t have any other working clean install discs lying around, so in order to set up this new machine, I had to go pirate a Windows Vista install disc, install Vista, and THEN install a clean Windows 7. This took about three hours longer than I have patience for, and when everything booted, I was eager to get this fucker finished.

But wait! Why should things go smoothly? Drivers install as expected, but even when connected to wifi and running normally, Windows Update refuses to do a goddamn single iota of a thing. Installing SP1, hoping it fixes the issue.

Shit, Microsoft, get it together.

My Workflow, or why shopping for technology is pissing me off.

Right now, I’m using a two year-old phone, a seven year-old e-reader, and a desktop that’s almost to the decade point. It came with Windows Vista, when that was new. And my tablet, that’s been retired due to a broken micro USB port. It’s also three years old, and

Obviously, this is unacceptable, and I realize this, and I’m trying to find suitable replacements.

The desktop computer part, that’s easy. Plenty of configuration sites and then amazon or newegg and I’m set. An afternoon with lego’s autistic cousin and I’ll have something perfect.

But everything else, that’s where I’m getting pissed off. And it’s all the portable stuff, too.

I went through this not quite a year ago with music, when it became glaringly obvious that smartphones are pretty much useless at high end audio, due to restricted storage space and shitty audio processing hardware. After briefly using a Sansa Clip, the glorious, amazing, wonderous, superlative Fiio X1 came out. I’ll be reviewing that in the context of how I run my music collection at some point, but needless to say, music audio is firmly covered, and that task is irrelevant to my decision making process from here on out.

Rather than looking at what device is getting replaced, I’m more concerned with how I can best accomplish a set of tasks. I’m less tied to a specific device than I am the workflow I use as a whole.

For me, most of my working time is spent using Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress, because that’s what it means to be in web content. Like this, right now, what I’m doing, is not all that different than what I did at work and was actually assigned in a recent class. I actually don’t use the stock Facebook app, or any Facebook app, because every single one of them is unusable, especially the “official” one. For that, I need a web browser. A good one.

Reddit, on Android, is easy. Reddit News Relay for Reddit is simply the best one out there. Reddit Now is a close second for when Relay isn’t working (like on my phone, for fucks sake), but they’re both great and do what they need to do easily. Same with Twitter, plenty of great options.

I actually don’t use wordpress much on portable stuff except my laptop, and again, just needs a web browser (and a non-shitty keyboard).

But herein lies the dilemma:

The things I do on my tablet, laptop, and phone have a LOT of overlap. The only exclusives are Waze on the phone, ebooks (sometimes) on the tablet, and Netflix on the laptop. So now, I’m wondering if one of these three devices gets booted off the island.

This is accomplished by taking the tablet functions and splitting them across laptop and phone. This also means I’m looking for a touchscreen-enabled laptop-slash-Surface-device and getting a massive brick of a bitch of a phone.

I like small smartphones. It’s easier to use, typically more power-efficient (since screens are a massive battery suck), and comfortable in the hand.

Yet, the phone I’m considering to solve this problem is the Droid Turbo. That bastard is a whopping 41% bigger than my current phone. And it’s going to complicate the pocket situation. Normally, I carry my phone, a pen, a notebook, and my wallet. This thing is going to crowd out all non-phone objects to one pocket, which is annoying, but potentially manageable.

I want to test it out, and see if I hate it as much as I expect I might, but I only get 14 days thanks to the draconian policies of cell phone carriers.

Oh, and I know I’m sticking with Android. I’ve tried an iPhone, and it’s good at being a podcast player in the car and nothing else. And Windows Phone, yeah nope. The only parts of the software I’m at all familiar with are elements I disable and replace on my desktop. Android is literally the only rational choice for me.

So, say I get the big phone. I’m probably sacrificing the tablet’s ebook-reading abilities, cause reading on a phone, no matter the size, is awful, plain and simple. That means I’m looking at ereaders, too (we’ll get to that).

Phone potentially solved. Onto the laptop situation.

My laptop is my portable workbench. I write, research, take notes, and even record podcast audio on there. This is also the device most likely to find itself near my bed for whatever internet-based content I’m applying to my retinas. I’ve seen the Surface Pro’s latest whatever they’re calling it, and I gotta say, I’m pretty convinced. I like that I can still have the touchscreen tablet feel for browsing the internet, while also having a not-crippled-incapable-of-productive-work device. The keyboard case looks nice, but it’s actually awful for typing, but again, most laptops especially suck at that. I might be able to manage with it, since the new revision is backlit and better engineered. And touchscreens are SO MUCH INFINITELY BETTER than track pads ever could hope to be. Key example of this: the MacBook line. Annoying keyboard, annoying massive trackpad.

ANYWAY.

This is the alternative to my normal practice of just buying the most discounted new Toshiba Satellite model I can find. And I’ve seen what Toshiba is offering, and I’m not super impressed. Not a good year for laptops, in my opinion, but whatever. I’m stubbornly brand  loyal, but mainly due to my experience with ripping the things apart to repair the inevitable issues. The devil you know, etc.

So, at this point, my arsenal looks like this:

  • Droid Turbo
  • New desktop
  • Surface Pro 3

Now onto the thing pissing me off the most. Ebooks.

I like to read. I take my nook all over. It’s lovely. The interface is very simple, loads quickly, decent battery life (while new, mine isn’t), and most importantly, a physical button one presses to turn a page.

This may sound simple, and that’s because it really is. It’s the most important action while reading, the page turn, so it should obviously be the most logical, convenient process.

Instead, on all the current Nooks, Kobos, Kindles, everything, you have a fucking touchscreen. WHY.

Touchscreens are nice, and when they’re good they’re excellent. But everything does not need one! Hell, that’s half the reason I bought the Fiio is because it had mechanical buttons.

I want just a few things from an ereader: E-ink screen, good format support, a microUSB port for sync and charging, a light of some sort, and a button to turn the fucking page.

Instead, they all decide, weeeeeeeeell, we’ll just get rid of the nice control system and oh yeah, fuck the expandable memory, and we don’t really like all those formats, so they’re out too. What you’re left with is something incredibly frustrating and clumsy. And so many people around the tech world agree. This was not a change made in ANYONE’s best interest. And before you defend the companies saying maybe they’ll save money or some shit, the hatred of the new devices will cause more damage to their bottom line than a couple of fucking tact switches.

And it’s not like this hypothetical device exists somewhere at some ludicrous price point. It simply no longer exists. No one makes such a thing.

Goddamn.

Small Fish, Big Pond 4 – Keep on Knockin’

1989 brought with it a new competition for the Caribbean Football Union, and the Antiguans, fresh off their OECS win the year prior, were eager to keep winning. The CFU Championship was no more, replaced by the Caribbean Cup: a bigger, more prestigious competition that gave the winner a berth for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. That tournament, then, offered the top two finishers qualification to the World Cup!

This gave the island nations of CONCACAF a much easier route to the international stage.

Sponsored by Shell, the final tournament was to be held in Barbados; the title sponsor was based there and the island had an international airport. The tournament consisted of a qualification group stage and a finals group stage, with the winners of both finals groups meeting in the championship final. Qualifications consisted of three groups, and the Benna Boys were placed in Group C.

The group stage was formatted where the winners of each group, plus the best two runners up, plus the hosting Barbuda, would qualify for the finals.

The tournament began for the Antiguans on April 23, 1989, with a fixture against regional powerhouse Jamaica. Luckily, Antigua was to play host, with the home field advantage St. Johns provided. Details are sparce, but we do know this: after only 22 minutes of play, Antigua led Jamaica 1-0, thanks to a goal by the legendary Everton Gonsalves. The Benna Boys kept the Jamaican side score less up to the final whistle. Yes, you read that right, Antigua managed to beat a team who had finished as high as 6th in CONCACAF play.

The Benna Boys kept the momentum going for their second fixture, to be played away in Dominica on May 13th. Again, not much is known, but again the Antiguans triumphed! 1-0 after 90 minutes! Antigua was leading the group!

Antigua and Barbuda had two remaining fixtures in group play: home against St. Lucia on May 21st, and away against Guadaloupe at some point that June. Unfortunately, records from Caribbean soccer are sparce, and not only do we not have scores for these two events, but we don’t even know when the second one was played. We do know that Guadaloupe won the group with 3 wins and a loss, and Antigua finished second with the same record. It came down to the unknown goal differential.

Grenada took Group A with 3 wins and 1 draw, while Saint Vincent and the Grenadines took group B with the same record.

The second placed teams consisted of three teams with identical 3 win, 1 loss records, with the two advancing decided on goal differential. Trinidad and Tobago finished second in Group A with a +14 goal differential, while Netherlands Antilles finished second in Group B with a +6 goal differential. Antigua’s goal differential isn’t known, but it was the lowest of the three, meaning that despite winning 3 of their matches, the Benna Boys would fail to qualify for the finals. Eventually, Trinidad and Tobago beat Grenada 2-1 to win it, but that’s not what we’re here for.

One of these days I really want to go to the CFU archives and dig through and see if I can’t find some of this missing data. It’s been an unfortunately recurring theme. I don’t know if it’s poor record keeping or a lack of tournament prestige or what, but there’s quite a lot of information missing that I’d love to have.

Anyway, with the disappointing loss on tiebreakers, the Antiguans were done for 1989. But, 1990 brought with it a new decade and another edition of the Caribbean Cup.

For the 1990 tournament, Antigua and Barbuda were placed in Zone C for qualification, one of four groups consisting of four teams each. The winner of each group would advance; no more second place tiebreaker nonsense.

Their competition began on April 14th, playing away on the island of Bermuda.

Six minutes in, the local boys went up 1-0 over the Benna Boys off a Sheridan Ming goal. Two minutes later, Antigua equalized, courtesy of Dion Greenaway. The half ended level at one goal a piece.

Two minutes into the second half, the one and only Everton Gonsalves worked his magic once again to give his country the lead for the first time. For thirty long minutes, the scoreline remained 2-1 in favor of the visitors, but in the 77th minute, Bermudan Corey Hill equalized. Antigua were unable to capitalize on the remaining 13 minutes, and the match ended, 2-2. Still, not a bad result at all.

Their second match was played away in Barbados, on April 29th. The first half saw no score, but 9 minutes into the second half, Adrian Hall put Barbados into the lead, one which they preserved. Antigua lost, 1-0.

Their final match was played at home a month later, hosting St. Lucia on May 27th. Earl Jean put the Lucians ahead in the 22nd minute, and added another in the 54th, to shut down Antigua and eliminate them from the tournament. For the second year in a row, Antigua finished second in it’s group.

Consistent as it may be, it meant for another year, no finals appearance. Fortunately for the Antiguans, though, they managed to make it to the OECS final in their smaller regional tournament, and on November 9th, they narrowly edged out Dominica at home, winning the tournament for the second time with a final score 2-1.

That was it for the Benna Boys until 1992. But more on that later.

 

State of Arena Soccer – Part 1 – 2013-2014 MISL Season

It was recently reported that the USL operated Major Indoor Soccer League is no more, due to 6 of the 7 teams departing to join the rival Professional Arena Soccer League, with the remaining league changing it’s name to Major Arena Soccer League, or MASL. With that, came the information that the 2014-2015 season will be contested by 24 teams, 6 from MISL, 16 returning PASL teams, one revived team in the Tacoma Stars, and one expansion club, the Brownsville Barracudas. Four PASL teams and one MISL team are presumed to have folded.

To set the stage for the first season of unified arena soccer, I’ll be documenting the history of the uniquely North American spin on the beautiful game, and the revolving door of leagues and teams. Today, here’s a brief summary of the 2013-2014 MISL season.

For older leagues, numbers will be used to describe which generation used that particular name. MISL1 will refer to the original, while MISL will refer to the current league.

 

Seven teams contested the season, featuring two new clubs. Two teams failed to return.

FOLDED:

The Chicago Soul had a short history, playing only one season. They made the playoffs, but their early exit combined with only 1,565 average attendance and other financial woes meant that the Chicago market would be without MISL soccer for the 2013-2014 season.

The Wichita Wings were an attempted rebirth of the original Wings who played 22 years before folding in 2001. This team fared worse, managing only two seasons before declining attendance and a lack of playoff soccerm among other things, led to a swift demise.

RETURNING:

The Baltimore Blast were founded in 1992 as the Baltimore Spirit. They were a constant presence in the old NPSL2, and after joining the MISL2 in 2001 won 4 championships in 6 years. They entered the season as reigning champions, having slaughtered the Missouri Comets 21-12 and 8-6 in the two game championship series. Coach Danny Kelly returned for yet another year. The team had an insane regular season, winning 17 of 20 games, scoring 309 points and allowing only 101, good for 1st overall and playoffs.

The Milwaukee Wave are, and have been, the oldest continuously operating pro soccer team in North America, having been founded in 1984. Across their long history spreading several leagues, they’ve managed to win 6 championships, having lost another 4 in the finals. Head coach Keith Tozer returned for his 22nd consecutive season at the reigns, leading the Wave to an impressive 16-4 record, good for 2nd overall and playoffs thanks to 324 points for, 203 against.

The Missouri Comets, founded in 2010, are named for the former Kansas City Comets of MISL1 fame. Coach Kim Røntved was fired to start the season after losing in the championship series, with Vlatko Andonovski hired as replacement. Missouri finished 14-6, in 3rd place with a league leading 329 points for, and 217 against.

The Rochester Lancers, also founded in 2010, hired Josh Rife as coach, after previous coach Jim Hesch led the team to a 10-16 record. Rife suffered an even worse first season, as the team went 6 and 14, with 216 points for and 280 against. They finished 5th, just out of the playoffs.

The Syracuse Silver Knights, founded in 2011, are the youngest of the returning teams. They kept original coach Tommy Tanner, who took them to their first playoff berth with a 12-8 record. That’s good for 4th overall, the final playoff berth.

NEW TEAMS:

The Pennsylvania Roar brought the indoor game to the town of Reading, but coach Eric Puls and his new team only managed to win 1 game. They only scored 105 points, while allowing a league high 375, and cemented their place at the bottom of the table early.

Fellow expansion side St. Louis Ambush didn’t fare much better, only winning 4 games. Player Odaine Sinclair did win rookie of the year, but with 186 points for and 348 against, could only manage 6th, just above the Roar.

 

Attendance wise, Rochester were top, despite no playoffs, with an average of 7,347.

Almost-undefeated Baltimore were second with 6,123 average.

St. Louis fans managed to look past their team’s on the field woes to the tune of 5,636 on average.

Milwaukee dipped slightly from the previous year, but still posted a respectable 4,906.

Missouri followed closely with another slight drop, managing 4,180.

Syracuse, despite their success on the field, could only average 2,869.

But poor Roar. Not only did they only win one game, but they had barely half of Syracuse’s attendance, with a dismal average of only 1,549.4 unanswered in the 2nd quarter

 

The playoffs began with Baltimore leveling Syracuse 20 to 7, and the Comets flattening the Wave 20 to 6.

Fortunes changed for the second game in both series, with Milwaukee winning 12 to 9 over Missouri, and Baltimore losing 6 to 9 against the Silver Knights.

That meant a 15 minute mini-game in both semifinal brackets.

In the first tie breaker, Missouri won 6 to 2, advancing over the Wave.

The second saw Baltimore win 4 to 3 despite a late game 3 point goal for Syracuse.

This meant Baltimore would face Missouri in the championship series.

Game 1 saw the Comets start and finish strong, scoring 6 unanswered points in the 3rd quarter.

Baltimore responded at home with a dominant 19 to 4 win, with 11 unanswered in the first half. This forced another 15 minute tiebreaker, with Missouri winning both the minigame and the championship 6 to 4, off a 14th minute goal.

It was Missouri’s first championship in the current team’s four year history.

 

State of Arena Soccer – Part 0 – Playing Indoors

It was recently reported that the USL operated Major Indoor Soccer League is no more, due to 6 of the 7 teams departing to join the rival Professional Arena Soccer League, with the remaining league changing it’s name to Major Arena Soccer League, or MASL. With that, came the information that the 2014-2015 season will be contested by 24 teams, 6 from MISL, 16 returning PASL teams, one revived team in the Tacoma Stars, and one expansion club, the Brownsville Barracudas. Four PASL teams and one MISL team are presumed to have folded.

To set the stage for the first season of unified arena soccer, I’ll be documenting the history of the uniquely North American spin on the beautiful game, and the revolving door of leagues and teams, but first, a brief summary of what arena soccer really is.

 

It’s basically soccer mixed with ice hockey.

Start off with a hockey rink, boards and everything. Take some synthetic turf, cover the ice, and remove the walls behind hockey’s goal line. Put a goal in each hole in the wall, flush with the boards. Goals are 14 feet by 8 feet and at least 5 feet deep, smaller than outdoors. The field is divided much like hockey, and the hockey offsides rule is used. There’s also a 3 line violation rule, where a defending player kicks the ball past both yellow lines and the white line. It gives possession to the other team, and can result in a 2 minute penalty.

 

Here’s a rough idea of what the field looks like, courtesy of the PASL rulebook.

Image

Teams consist of five position players plus a goalkeeper. Rules are pretty similar, with goal kicks and corner kicks and penalty kicks all working, but teams are allowed unlimited substitutions, much like hockey, and the same benches are used. Substitutions can happen at any time, and frequently occur during play.

The boards are all in bounds, and playing the ball off them is part of basic strategy.

Arena soccer preserves the hockey penalty box, using soccer style cards to issue penalty time.

A blue card means two minutes in the box, for specific minor fouls. Fouled team plays on a two minute 5-on-4 power play.

A yellow card means five minutes in the box for more severe offenses, but no power play.

A red card means the offending player is gone, just like soccer, with blue card style 2 minute power play following. A designated player occupies the box.

Games consist of four 15 minute quarters. There’s no ties; teams play 15 minute sudden death overtime followed by a 3 man shootout if necessary.

In the MISL, goals are worth two points, with those scored from behind a special three-point arc worth three, much like basketball.

In the PASL, all goals are one point, and there’s no 3 point arc.

For lower leagues, numbers will be used to describe which generation used that particular name. MISL1 will refer to the original, while MISL will refer to the current league.

 

Small Fish Big Pond 3 – One Little Victory

We last ended in 1986, with the Benna Boys bowing out of Central American and Caribbean Games qualifying after two matches.

1987 brought with it a brief foray into Olympic qualifying, with a pair of draws against the Dominican Republic. Despite neither side winning, the away goals rule took effect, with the Dominican Republic scoring their only goal during the leg hosted in Antigua. An unfortunately early exit from the tournament, and with that, the end of international competition for Antigua in 1987.

However, 1988 was set to be the busiest year yet for the Benna Boys.

March of 1988 brought with it another round of CFU Championship qualifying.

For the home and away series, Antigua would be facing their most recent victims, Dominica, who, despite taking an early lead with an 18th minute goal from Robert Hippolyte, wound up level at half time thanks to a late goal from Steve Hurst, and had their fate sealed with yet another goal at the increasingly legendary feet of Everton Gonsalves in the second half. That win back in 1985 put Antigua through to the next round of qualification, but eventually lost 1-0 to Guadeloupe.

After three years, Dominica was out for revenge, and Antigua was hoping to go two-for-two.

The first match, played away in Dominica, was a relatively tame affair, with the hosts managing to hold the visiting Antiguans to a scoreless draw. The same, however, can’t be said for the leg hosted in Saint John’s.

The match started out rough, with Dominica conceding a penalty in just the 18th minute. Everton Gonsalves made swift work of it, and put the home town favorites up 1-0. Late into the first half, the visiting Dominicans own McIntyre equalized with a goal in the 44th minute.

The teams entered the second half still level, but in the 70th minute, Antiguan player Anthony scored the go-ahead and eventually game winning goal in the first Antiguan victory in over three years.

The Benna Boys were through to the next round.

The CFU Championship finals were scheduled for July of 1988, but before that, another tournament: the CONCACAF Championship, which counted for 1990 World Cup Qualification!

For only the third time in their brief history, Antigua and Barbuda would be fighting it out on the biggest international stage of all! Or, at least, that’s what they planned. But before that, they must qualify.

The two tournaments would overlap, with one qualifying match hosted against Curacao, followed by the three matches of the CFU Championship finals, then the second qualification leg, and then Olympic qualification for the 1988 Summer Games. A very busy summer for the Antiguans.

The Benna Boys had a less than ideal start to the summer, dropping the first qualifying match 1-0 at home against Curacao. Hoping to put this loss behind them, the Antiguans traveled to Martinique for the 1988 CFU Championship Finals. Their first of three matches was against the host nation.

The start of the Finals competition was a high scoring affair, and at the final whistle, Antigua remained level against Martinique with a score of 2-2. The second match, played just two days later, saw Antigua draw long standing rivals Trinidad and Tobago 1-1. Another two days after that saw the Benna Boys conclude the Finals with a third consecutive draw, this time 0-0 against Guadeloupe.

Despite failing to win any of their three matches, Antigua and Barbuda’s three points from three draws was good for second place, behind eventual second time champions Trinidad and Tobago. While it might not seem like much, this was the best finish ever by Antigua in any international tournament. They had only made the finals twice before, and finished last both times.

Hoping to carry this momentum through to their second CONCACAF/World Cup qualification match against Curacao, the Benna Boys traveled to the Netherlands Antilles for what proved to be a much tougher task.

Antigua wound up scoring their only goal as of yet in the tournament, going level at 1-1 in aggregate, but in extra time, eventually conceded three goals, losing 4-1 overall. Not the outcome they hoped for, but after the incredibly busy summer, was still not that bad a result.

Plus, it set up the Benna Boys for something unprecedented.

But first! Some history!

In 1981, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States was founded with the Treaty of Basseterre. This succeeded the previous West Indies Associated States, a union of islands whose status changed from British colonies to semi-dependent states maintaining association with the United Kingdom in 1967. Due to many of these nations declaring independence, the union became obsolete, leading to the foundation of the OECS.

This organization hosted a soccer tournament in the fall 1988, and Antigua and Barbuda made the final.

This time, instead of a round-robin bracket, there would be a more traditional championship match.

On November 20, 1988, Antigua hosted Saint Lucia for the OECS final, and in front of the home crowd, scored two unanswered goals and won their first ever international championship!

Yes, the Benna Boys finally did it. And while the OECS title might not be as impressive as many other competitions, it’s still a major international victory.

The remaining month of 1988 didn’t see any international play for the Antiguans, but it did see the creation of an new Caribbean championship tournament. The CFU Championship would be folded into the new Caribbean Cup, with the inaugural tournament to be held the following year in Barbados. This would feature three groups and sixteen teams, more participants than any prior Caribbean tournament.

And Antigua was entered.

F1 Class of 2010 Part 2 – Flyaway Flameout

Australia

The Formula 1 circus, including the three new teams, reconvened in Melbourne, Australia, for the second of the four flyaway round to open the season.

One of the weekend’s earliest headlines was news that the Virgin Racing team had discovered a fairly embarrassing problem with their cars, that due to both cars’ failure went unnoticed in Bahrain.

The team realized that the fuel tanks they had built into the VR-01 chassis were too small to complete a race at normal speed, resulting in the team asking the FIA for permission to introduce a redesign. Despite being granted permission, the new chassis would not be ready until May 9th, nearly 6 weeks and three races later. They would have to run underpowered to have any hopes of running at the finish. Not what you want when you’re a young team looking for sponsorship money and results.

The weekend continued relatively free of controversy. In the first Friday practice session, all 6 new cars completed multiple laps, with the Lotus cars leading the freshmen teams and the HRT cars splitting the Virgin Racing entries.

The second session was a bit more hectic, being arbitrarily declared ‘wet’ due to a light rain at the circuit. Hispania’s testing issues once again reared their head with Bruno Senna failing to take the track and Karun Chandhok only completing an installation lap. Virgin Racing’s notoriously unreliable hydraulic systems forced Lucas di Grassi to stop on track without registering a time. The Lotus cars, however, managed to complete another session without any major difficulty.

Saturday’s pre-qualifying practice saw both HRT drivers fall victim once again to the recurring hydraulic problems, while the Virgin Racing team managed to at least get both cars on the time sheet, albeit a second slower than Lotus. The Freshmen class entered qualifying once again without any hope of advancing beyond the first knockout round.

Sebastian Vettel was quickest in all three knockout rounds, taking the pole with a time of 1:23.9. Once again, the Lotus cars of Kovalainen and Trulli topped the newbies, with Q1 times about 2 and a half seconds slower than Vitaly Petrov. Timo Glock, the faster Virgin driver, was around 5 tenths of a second slower than Trulli, with his teammate di Grassi 5 tenths slower still. The HRT cars were seperated by less than 2 tenths of a second and both were within two seconds of the Virgin Cars. Despite all 6 cars being eliminated, the lap times were evidence of clear progress towards the midfield.

All in all, the gap between pole speed and 24th was less than 7 seconds, with the new teams separated by less than two. Sure, the 6 backmarking cars had little chance of scoring points in the top 10, but already the massive gap seen in Bahrain was closing.

Come race day, Virgin elected to start both cars from pit lane, due to a fuel collector issue. During qualifying, this problem forced the team to run more fuel than normally necessary, potentially slowing the cars down. Also planning to start from the pits was the Lotus of Jarno Trulli, after yet another hydraulic issue. However, the issue could not be rectified in time, and Trulli failed to start.

Rain before the start led to the race being declared wet for the first time that season. Every driver opted to switch to intermediate tires. At the start, mayhem ensued with no fewer than 6 drivers involved in contact, eliminating Kobayashi, Hulkenberg, and Buemi from contention on the first lap. The safety car was promptly deployed.

Under full course caution, Bruno Senna retired on lap 4 when his Hispania’s hydraulics once again gave out. Between then and lap 26, Petrov, Sutil, and Vettel all retired, before Lucas di Grassi became the third new car out with yet another hydraulic failure.

Timo Glock carried the hopes of the Virgin Racing team for another fifteen laps, before his suspension gave way on lap 42. That left only Kovalainen and Chandhok as the two remaining new cars.

The last 14 laps remained relatively civil, and both Chandhok and Kovalainen were running at the finish. Heikki and his Lotus managed a respectable 13th place finish, two laps down, while the remaining Hispania in the hands of the rookie Chandhok crossed the line 5 laps and several minutes from winner Jenson Button.

Two races in, quicker in qualifying, two cars finish. Slow progress, but still progress. On to Malaysia for the 3rd round of the season.

Malaysia

Sepang International Circuit played host to round 3, and as is tradition in Malaysia, the weekend was marked by heavy rainfall. In the first Friday practice session, all 6 freshman cars managed more than 15 laps, running within around 7 seconds of the leaders, and even Lotus’ local born test driver Fairuz Fauzy got seat time in Kovalainen’s car, turning 19 laps. The second session saw the new teams run over 20 laps in each car, with Senna, Trulli, and Kovalainen all managing more than 30. The reliability continued through the rain-delayed third session. By the end of Saturday’s practice, the three new teams were running within 6.4 seconds of the leaders, and turning consistent lap times. Compared to the chaotic sessions from the first two rounds, practice remained relatively calm, weather notwithstanding. Normally, I’d be writing about how some ridiculous thing happened in each session, but really, there’s no point because there really wasn’t anything too unusual about the three practice sessions.

And then qualifying happen.

Oh, damn, did it ever happen.

Things started out with  McLaren and Ferrari holding both their drivers in the garage to wait for the track to dry out more, with the knowledge that more rain could be coming. The three new teams did the opposite, choosing to start running laps immediately. This paid off as the rain returned, catching McLaren and Ferrari out in the cold. Rather than looking at the top ten, let’s start from the bottom. The final three places were occupied by Virgin’s di Grassi, and both Hispania’s. None of them managed better than a 1:56. And in position 21… Felipe Massa. With a 1:53.3. In a Ferrari. Ahead of him? It’s not the other Virgin, nor a Lotus; it’s Lewis Hamilton, with a 1:53.05. Next up the order, it’s gotta be one of the freshmen, right? WRONG. It’s Fernando Alonso, in the other Ferrari. He only managed a 1:53.044. And no, I’m not actually reading the top 10. The man who won in Bahrain would start no higher than nineteenth. Ahead of him, in the final elimination spot, was the first of the Loti, with Jarno Trulli managing a respectable 1:52.884. Button, the man on the bubble, narrowly escaped knockout, but did not escape the clutches of the gravel trap, and would not be participating in the next round.

They say fortune favors the bold; in this case, fortune means slaying giants. Advancing to Q2 included the usual Red Bulls, Mercedeses, Williamses, Saubers, Toros Rosso, Renaults, Forces India, and two surprise guests. Yes, in only the third race of the season, Heikki Kovalainen, of Lotus, and Timo Glock, of Virgin, made it into the second round of qualifying. And there was very much rejoicing. Heikki Kovalainen achieved a solid 1:52.875, less than a tenth quicker than his teammate, while Timo Glock, in an amazing turn of events, pulled a 1:52.398. To put that in perspective, he ran quicker than Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes and was within a few tenths of Schumacher. Normality temporarily resumed for the second round, and due to Button’s beaching, the two advancing representatives of the new teams were relegated to the 8th row of the grid. However, both drivers still ran impressive lap times, with Glock hitting 1:52.520 and Kovalainen somehow managing a 1:52.270. And yes, these times were around 3 seconds slower than the Toros Rosso, and yes, neither one made Q3, but they had out-qualified 3 former world champions, and were ahead of both Ferraris and both McLarens. An unbelievable result!

Race day brought with it some much appreciated dry weather, but before the lights went out Pedro de la Rosa lost his engine. Only 23 cars would take the grid.

On lap 3, Trulli and Glock had a close encounter of the crunch kind, and poor Timo, despite his amazing run in qualifying, was out. Over the next ten laps, Kobayashi, Schumacher, and Liuzzi all fell victim to various mechanical issues. Then, things settled down, with 20 laps of clean racing before another mechanical issue. The cyborg from Vyborg, Vitaly Petrov, lost his gearbox, and couldn’t make it back to the Renault pits for them to find it again. Then, back to more clean racing.

The next of the newbies to drop was Heikki Kovalainen with, surprise surprise, hydraulic issues. This time, though, the Lotus team managed to coax some life into the car, and Heikki returned to the track, albeit 9 laps down. In a surprising turn of events, both Hispania cars were running at the finish, along with  both Loti and the Virgin rookie di Grassi, who finished highest in 14th, 3 laps down. Following him were Chandhok and Senna, in 15th and 16th, in the first double-finish for Hispania. Not a tremendous achievement, but given their reliability record, still counts for something, even if they were 3 and 4 laps down respectively. Trulli was the final car classified, despite Heikki running at the finish. The Finn spent so much time getting the hydraulic issues sorted in pit lane that he failed to complete the required 90% of the race. Still, no mechanical-induced retirements for the new teams, and 5 out of 6 cars running at the end. A solid result.

And onward to Shanghai for round 4.

F1 Class of 2010 Part 1 – Fresh Blood

From 2004 to 2008, Formula 1 consisted mainly of the same 10 teams, plus the 2006 addition of Honda’s b-team Super Aguri. These teams, despite swapping owners, names, drivers, and staff, didn’t actually change all that much. Many of the same faces remained on the paddock, and many of the same factories remained in near-constant operation. That is, right up until the 5th race into 2008. As the media circus descended upon the Istanbul Park circuit, there was a noticeable hole in pit lane once occupied by Aguri Suzuki’s organization. That set in motion a two-year mass exodus of quite a few notable names and brands, with Toyota, BMW, and Honda all electing to leave formula one. Honda’s outfit became Brawn for 2009, and then Mercedes for 2010 onwards; BMW’s team reverted to it’s original Sauber branding and operation; and Toyota simply vanished, with their remaining assets later purchased by Serbian businessman Zoran Stefanovic. At that point, there were only 9 teams and 3 engines due to contest the 2010 season. Compare that to the start of the 2008 season, with 11 teams and 6 engine manufacturers, and it’s easy to understand why F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone issued a call for new blood for the new season, aiming for 13 teams’ participation.

The next season was to mark the beginning of “new f1”, as many had put it, with in-race refuelling being re-banned, as one of several measures intending to cut costs. So-called ‘green’ technology was to feature more heavily than before, and more emphasis was to be placed on reliability and stability, and what better way to show it than to invite several new teams at rather short notice?

From an initial list of 15, Formula One Management selected bids from four organizations to participate in grand prix racing’s highest level: USF1, Campos Meta, Manor Grand Prix, and 1Malaysia Lotus Racing.

Before the season began, already there were changes to be made. Manor was renamed Virgin Racing, to reflect a buyout by Virgin Group and their head Richard Branson. Campos Meta was purchased by Spanish businessman Jose Ramon Carabante, and rebranded to Hispania Racing. 1Malaysia Lotus Racing, operated by Air Asia and Tune Group head Tony Fernandes, remained under the same ownership, but simplified their operating name to Lotus Racing.

USF1, the planned American outfit with headquarters in Charlotte, NC, never made it to the grid. Between design delays, budget issue, an sponsorship shortages, among many issues, the team requested deferred entry, either later that summer or the following season. The answer from FOM was a resounding no, leading to an almost immediate folding of the American team.

The Sakhir Circuit, in Manama, Bahrain, played host to the first round of the 2010 season. Despite USF1’s departure, the other three – Hispania, Lotus, and Virgin – all made it to the first race of the season, despite problems in testing and a whole mess of off-the-track issues. In practice, as in testing, only Lotus managed to run a relatively stable session. Virgin had issues with Luca di Grassi’s car, and Hispania were busy completing initial construction of both cars. But hey, that’s why they give you three practice sessions, and by Saturday’s qualifying, all 6 cars from the freshmen class had at least completed a few dozen laps.

In qualifying, few expected the three new teams to advance beyond the first round, but at the same time, no one was really sure just how far off the pace they would be. Virgin and Lotus, having had a chance to run some testing, were relatively close to each other, but were still around 3 seconds slower than the slowest established team, Toro Rosso. Hispania was another story.

The fastest lap from the first qualifying session was a 1:54.6, from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari was the slowest of the returning teams, with a best time of 1:57. Two seconds separating first and eighteenth is fairly close. But then we get to the newbies. Both Virgins and Loti were within a second of each other, right around the two-minute mark. Bruno Senna, the faster of the two Hispania drivers, only managed a 2:03. His teammate, Karun Chandhok, was nearly two seconds slower, only managing a time of 2:04.9. To put that in perspective, polesitter Sebastian Vettel, with a lap time of 1:54.1, was a whopping 10.8 seconds quicker than the slowest car. He could hypothetically lap Chandhok in less than eleven laps. In a 49 lap race. There existed a very real possibility of Vettel lapping Chandhok on track four times.

Instead, Chandhok spun out of the race less than two laps in. The culprit: one of the curbs on corner exit that, due to his limited practice time, he was unaware of. 5 new cars remained.

On lap 3, Virgin’s di Grassi’s hydraulics failed, as they had many times in testing, which swiftly sidelined him as well. 4 new cars remained.

Several laps later, issues befell the other Virgin car in the hands of Timo Glock. His gearbox decided it wasn’t very happy with it’s current situation, and the best way of rectifying this was to give 3rd and 5th gear the boot. 3 new cars remained.

The next lap, Bruno Senna, in the remaining Hispania, suffered an engine failure after airbox issues led to overheating. 2 new cars remained.

Both Lotus Racing entries managed to make it to the halfway point, the only new team to do so, and both cars continued to run, relatively incident free.

Hydraulic issues sidelined the Lotus of Jarno Trulli just a few laps from the finish, leaving his teammate Heikki Kovalained the only remaining new car.

Heikki finished 15th, last among running cars, and two laps down. But hey, at least he finished.

The results indicated what many had thought all weekend: Virgin was just as quick as Lotus, but nowhere near as reliable, Hispania Racing was woefully slow, and none of the new teams looked to have any chance at a points-paying top 10 position.

Onward to Australia for round 2.

 

Small Fish Big Pond 2 – Steady, as She Goes

We last left off in the late 70s/early 80s with Antigua bowing out of CFU Championship qualification after two 1-0 defeats at Haitian hands.

Not much is known to have happened in Antiguan soccer between then and 1983, and for the games before then, not much statistic wise is known. In fact, simply figuring out who scored would likely require a trip to Antigua and an extended rifling through their archives, something I’m considering doing with increasing seriousness.

Anyway, as stated previously, our saga continues in 1983. The Benna Boys returned from their hiatus by entering the 1983 CFU Championship once again. First round qualification consisted of a home-and-away series against neighboring Guadeloupe, the first victim of Antigua in international play. Antigua traveled to the French island on April 2nd, for the first time since their prior victory on penalties. This time, the visitors didn’t need spot kicks to stun the home crowd with a 3-2 victory, only their second.

Antigua hosted Guadeloupe for the second leg a month later. Mervyn Richard opened the scoring for the Benna Boys in the 15th minute, before Guadeloupe answered with first half goals from Philipe Galoux in the 29th and Jean Silvedire in the 41st. Cedric Joseph brought Antigua back level only three minutes later to close out the first half tied two-two.

The second half began with a second goal from Guadeloupe’s Galoux, not even a full minute in. The next twenty minutes, the visiting side led, before Antiguan Alfred Lewis scored in the 55th. That put the match back level at 3-3, with Antigua leading 6 to 5 on aggregate. The Benna Boys kept the game level for the remainder of the match, pushing them through to the qualification playoffs, consisting of a two game series against Guyana.

Antigua was now only two games away from their second CFU Finals appearance, potentially their first in five years.

The first match was once again to be played on the road. Antigua held the local Guyanese to a scoreless draw.

Then, in the home leg, something unfounded happened. Back home, the fired up Antigua side needed only one goal to advance. Instead, Everton Gonsalves netted four. The Benna Boys’ back line maintained a clean sheet, giving the local boys a four-nothing victory. Antigua had never scored that many goals, nor won by such a margin before, and it would remain their biggest win for nearly a decade.

Antigua and Barbuda, for only the second time in their history, had made it to the CFU Championship Finals.

The Benna Boys had a daunting task ahead of them, aiming to improve upon their previous performance. They had made it to the final competition in the inaugural tournament five years before, but scored only a single goal in three games, finishing without a point and a -7 goal differential.

This time, Antigua would face Martinique, French Guiana, and Caribbean powerhouse Trinidad and Tobago. Their first game, against Martinique, ended badly. Antigua lost 2-0. The second, held against the hosting French Guiana, didn’t go much better. Another loss, this time 1-0.

Antigua traveled to Trinidad for the last of 3 games, without a hope of winning, but with the potential to play spoiler to Trinidad and Tobago. If Martinique won or drew their final match, they would win, but if Martinique lost, and Trinidad beat Antigua, Trinidad would win.

Martinique held French Guyana to a scoreless draw, guaranteeing themselves the 1983 CFU title.

Antigua, however, did manage to score on Trinidad, as they had five years ago, but allowed two goals in the process. Despite losing all three games, they managed a respectable -4 goal differential. While far from ideal, it was an improvement on their previous showing, and the plucky underdogs still had reason to celebrate. Two wins, including their 4-0 slaughter, and improved defending, were sure signs of progress to the twin islands.

Antigua’s participation in the CFU finals meant they were eligible for 1985 CONCACAF Championship qualification, consisting of a two game series against Haiti. In preparation, the Benna Boys took on Guyana in friendly competition. Everton Gonsalves maintained his prolific form, netting all 3 en route to a clean sheet victory.

August 1984 brought Antigua’s second CONCACAF Championship qualification, and with it, a potential berth in the World Cup, meaning that for only the second time, Antigua and Barbuda had entered FIFA’s most famous contest. Both games were due to be played away in Haiti, robbing the Benna Boys of their now-growing home field advantage. The first match went undeniably poorly. Haiti took down the visitors 4-nothing. During the second game, only three days later, Antigua managed to net 2 goals en route to their first continental level victor, but with Haiti adding another, Antigua lost 5-2 on aggregate. Once again, Antigua and Barbuda’s qualification hopes ended early, along with the year 1984.

1985 brought with it another CFU Championship, and with a handful of wins to their name, Antigua and Barbuda had a lot to prove. Qualification consisted of two matches, against Dominica and Guadeloupe.

Not much is known about the qualification round, but we do know that despite going up 2-1 on Dominica, the 1-0 loss at the hands of Guadeloupe meant the Benna Boys lost out on their chance of a finals repeat.

Antigua’s only known matches in 1986 were two Central American and Caribbean Games qualifiers, held in the Dominican Republic. Antigua drew the hosts 1-1 and lost 1-0 to Honduras, and failed to qualify.

It would be two years before Antigua and Barbuda had another appearance in international soccer.